Lawmakers give preliminary approval to updated ABC regulations

WRAL | 05.19.2026

A group of North Carolina lawmakers on Tuesday advanced a proposal to allow grocery stores to sell premixed cocktails, which are currently only sold in state-run liquor stores.

The House Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Control gave preliminary approval to House Bill 921, which would enact several revisions to the state’s liquor laws. Among them: allowing retailers to sell premixed cocktails — also known as canned cocktails — so long as they contain less than 10% of alcohol by volume.

State law restricts premixed cocktail sales to the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control stores because they are made with spirits. State Rep. Ray Pickett, a Watauga County Republican and the bill’s lead sponsor, says the restriction is unnecessary because many of the drinks have alcohol content that’s more comparable to beer or wine than to liquor. For instance, High Noon hard seltzers — which are made with vodka — have 4.5% alcohol by volume. 

“The general public that buys this product, especially the canned cocktails, are really interested in having those in grocery stores [and] convenience stores like other states have,” Pickett told WRAL after the committee’s vote.

The bill would also:

• Allow people to order two cocktails at once at a bar — a practice allowed by many bartenders for convenience but that’s technically against the law. 
• Lift some regulations on “mobile bar services” such as those people hire for weddings or other large events. 
• Allow bars, restaurants, hotels and others to purchase their liquor from any ABC store in the state so long as the product isn’t available in their home county. 

A previous version of the bill sought to allow ABC stores to operate on Sundays, which state law currently prohibits. Pickett removed that section of the bill Tuesday because it received pushback at the committee meeting last week — and he wants to build support around the proposal to allow canned cocktail sales in grocery stores. Pickett also amended his proposal for groceries to sell canned cocktails: a previous version of the bill would’ve allowed the sale of drinks with 13% alcohol by volume.

Rev. Mark Creech, director of government relations for the Return America Christian advocacy group, said he appreciated Pickett’s changes to the bill — but that it still threatens public health.

“Alcohol controls are not needless red tape: they are safeguards. They slow things down, they create friction, they promote moderation,” Creech told the committee Tuesday, adding: “This bill has worked to remove too many of those safeguards all at once.”

Advocates for grocery stores and restaurants said they support the bill, while a representative for the state’s ABC commission noted that spirit-based drinks have never been sold in grocery stores. “We see that as a big change,” said Jason Joyner, who represents the state’s ABC stores. 

The bill, which goes next to the House Finance Committee, comes amid heightened scrutiny of the ABC system. 

A pro-business group known as “Free Our Spirits” recently launched a public pressure campaign calling on North Carolina lawmakers to privatize liquor sales throughout the state. Some lawmakers said last year that they wanted to explore the cost of privatization. A Republican state senator filed a bill to do just that, but it hasn’t picked up any cosponsors or gained any traction in the legislature.

Pickett’s bill also comes as alcohol consumption is down nationally. Gallup reported last year that 54% of U.S. adults regularly consume alcohol — the lowest in the poll’s 87-year history. A decline in liquor sales could hurt government revenues. The state’s ABC commission expects to generate $1.8 billion in sales revenue in the 2024-25 fiscal year — about $540 million of which is expected to go to the state’s general fund, commission representatives told lawmakers last year. 

Historically, North Carolina has had strict liquor laws that state leaders only loosened in recent years. The state banned the retail sale of alcohol before noon on Sundays until 2017, when then-Gov. Roy Cooper signed a law allowing it to start at 10 a.m. on Sundays. State leaders loosened the laws again in 2021, allowing North Carolina distilleries to sell their own liquor products.